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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

san francisco chronicle

Our Remodel Has Kept Us Company — We’ll Miss the Carpenters, the Electricians and the Pile Drivers. Sheltering at Home Week 11

May 28, 2020 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

our remodel has kept us company

With the coronavirus sequestering us at home, our remodel has kept us company. It’s brought living, breathing — masked — people into our house. Read  more.

I Landed a Bit Part in a Real Movie — Thank You, Armistead Maupin

January 14, 2017 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

The crew of a documentary about Armistead Maupin crowded into the writing studio of author Barbara Falconer Newhall: assistant Val Castro, sound recordist Mark Whelan, make-up Joel King, director Jennifer Kroot, cinematographer Shane King. Photo by Barbara Newhall

For her documentary about Armistead Maupin, Jennifer Kroot needed to interview someone who could tell tales about the birth of “Tales of the City.” Read more.

Writers Need Editors – And Mine Wants My Manuscript Turned In, Now

August 21, 2014 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Barbara Falconer Newhall frowns and frets as she gets started on editing the manuscript for her book, "Wrestling with God." Photo by Barbara Newhall

It’s time to put the final tweaks and edits on my book manuscript so that my editor can send it off to be formatted – and published. It’s been years since I started work on “Wrestling with God.” I’ve written draft after draft and tried format after format. I’ve been wrestling with that manuscript and what I want this book to be as fiercely as I’ve been wrestling with God and who that might be. Read more.

Armistead Maupin: The Man Who Wrote the Quintessential San Francisco Novel — On a Newspaper Deadline

January 23, 2014 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin reads from "The Days of Ana Madrigal" at Book Passage, SF Ferry Building

Army’s assignment was to show up at the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle every weekday morning and produce seven hundred words, give or take. The challenging part was this: Unlike most newspaper journalists, Army did not sit down to his Selectric typewriter fortified with a fat notebook of stats and quotes. Army’s job was not to report the news. It was to make it up. Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Widowed: Life Goes On — And Some of Us Still Like It

life goes on, as with this crocosmia-sprouting-through-a-deck Like it or not, life goes on. Our 101-year-old family friend had picked up the phone to check on me. If that’s not liking life, what is?   Read more.

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  • A Case of the Human Condition
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TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

Stalk of overgrown dracena marginata cut back -- on an angle -- so that the stalk can grow new leaves. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The Dracena Is Dead. Long Live the Dracena

FALCONER-family-1940s

A Child Is Born — And So Is a Grandpa

Two flowers, one thriving, one not remind me of Ann Patchett and her friend Lucy. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Ann Patchett — My Brand-New Favorite Author

girl-bumper-car

TV or Not TV: The Week We Turned Off Our 1980s Go-To Screen

MORE DON'T MISS!

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